How long do MH lights last??

[lanman]

I bought a new tank and HQI light (Aquapod) on 17 December. It's been two months - and I'm SURE that the light isn't as bright now as it was new. No - I don't have a meter to measure it with - I can just TELL. How will I know when I need to replace it?

 

bob

[miller]

Halides need to be replaced after a year

[Caribbean Jake]

depending on the manufacturer, they base it on hours of operations (lights on) not on days or month. For example an XM bulb I bought is specified for 10000 hours of operations, so you need to devide that by the hours per day the lights are on, and that will determine your lenght of time.

[davelin315]

General guidelines if you don't want to calculate costs are between 6 months-1 year of use. The best way to determine if you need to replace the bulbs from what I understand is to look at the color of the bulbs (they will eventually shift in spectrum) and also the PAR. We have a PAR meter and another one one the way that belong to the club so if you need to measure you should be able to do so soon. If you really want to measure the color of it, buy yourself a cheapo spectrometer and you can measure the light spectrum yourself.